Project on improving quality of hospital care kicks off in Vietnam
VOV.VN - A project titled ‘Improving the Quality of Hospital Care to Reduce Maternal, Newborn and Child Deaths in Vietnam’ was launched on October 28 by the Ministry of Health and World Health Organization (WHO) Vietnam.
The project funded by the Russian Government and implemented in Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Tajikistan aims to help the countries develop best practices and learn lessons on improving maternal and pediatrics quality of care.
The initiative is set to incorporate quality of care interventions and health systems which will be strengthened in order to improve maternal, newborn, and child care and services in the four countries.
Nguyen Duc Vinh, director of the Maternal and Child Health Department of the Ministry of Health, said improving the quality of maternal, newborn, and child care is a top priority in Vietnam. It is a key part of the national action plan for reproductive health care focusing on maternal and neonatal health for the 2021 - 2025 period.
Although Vietnam has made remarkable progress in maternal, newborn, and child care towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals 2030, there remains a large parity between remote and rural and urban areas. Infant mortality rates stood at 8.2/1000 live births in urban and 16.7/1000 live births in the rural areas, according to the General Statistics Office in 2019.
Maternal mortality rates were at their highest in mountainous and highland areas, which were between 10 and 20 times higher compared to urban areas, according to a Maternal Death Surveillance and Response (MDSR) report in 2019.
With the support of Russia, the WHO will help Vietnam reach its goal of improving quality of maternal and child health care, especially in remote areas, thereby contributing to the reduction of maternal and child mortality throughout the country in the next period.
The project is expected to benefit the healthcare systems in Ha Giang, Thanh Hoa, Dak Lak, and Soc Trang provinces.